


Another Moment

by canadiankazz



Category: Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: The Masquerade - L.A. By Night (Web Series)
Genre: Crying, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Sharing a Bed, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 18:26:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19817998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canadiankazz/pseuds/canadiankazz
Summary: Eva and Jasper start to heal and recover after the events of Season 3 Episode 7 "Hollywood Ending." Also contains spoilers for the Wondercon episode.





	Another Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Lisa (Cravatfiend) for the quick edit. Needless to say, I think we were ALL happy that a certain Nosferatu survived the night, and now he and Eva need all the snuggle time.
> 
> This fic can be read independently of my others, or it may be seen as a distant follow on from my other Jasper/Eva fic [Just a Moment or Two](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19151914).

Eva did not have words for the relief she felt. They had Jasper back. He was horrifically wounded, but he was _safe_. Though there had been casualties, the mission had been a success. The Ivory Tower had been set back. The Anarchs had clawed together a victory through teamwork and planning.

Most importantly to Eva at this moment is time though was that fact that Jasper was back. He had avoided the final death once again.

“ _Twenty-four hours ago,”_ Eva thought to herself, _“we were waiting for word on where Jasper might be, and no one was sure if he was dust or merely captured. Now...”_ she looked at him. He seemed tired, and still a little in shock. Torpor is always traumatic, staking especially so. The sense of powerlessness one feels coupled with the physical pain put it up there along with extreme hunger and the banes as among the worst things a Kindred could experience.

They were to stay at the Maharani and move again tomorrow night. Jasper seemed a little skittish to be sleeping in another one of Victor's clubs again.

“The last time we did this, the building was firebombed,” he growled.

“We're on to them now. They're on the back foot, and I have every piece of security I can obtain here, Jasper,” Victor assured him. “Look, I understand your fear. I understand it a hundred percent, but right now, this is the best place for us. We're all still banged up. We can rest and heal and move out tomorrow night.”

Jasper didn't argue further, though Eva could see he wanted to. He wanted to go home, but wasn’t allowed to. Not yet.

Victor gave Jasper a little room in the Maharani’s basement with a small bed to sleep in. “I um... I don't want to assume you want to share a room with him, Eva, but... well... do you?” Victor asked her.

Eva nodded. She knew Jasper didn’t want any information of how intimate their relationship had gotten to be leaked to the coterie, but it was too late for that now. She thought it was senseless to try to pretend they didn't have deep feelings for each other any more. “Yes,” she said.

Victor smiled. “That's fine. All good. Um... if you need anything at all, ask Campbell. I need to make a few calls before the sun comes up. We'll talk more later.”

Eva nodded. “Thank you, Victor.”

“No, thank _you._ Seriously.”

Eva bowed her head once more to the Baron of the Valley and he took his leave. Eva entered Jasper's small temporary bedroom and found him sitting on the edge of the bed. She had a good view of the horrible hole in his chest. It made her chest and throat clench in a way that had nothing to do with her Beast.

She remembered every other time she could think of seeing Jasper injured. It was mostly while in some kind of service to her, or while trying to protect her. Time and time again, he had been willing to sacrifice himself for her. While they were in Anaheim, she had been injured to the point of Torpor despite Jasper's best efforts. Eva remembered waking up in his arms, the taste of unfamiliar Vitae on her lips, gazing up into his intense and worried blue eyes as he whispered “I'm sorry” to her over and over.

Eva had finally managed to return the favour. She had never considered herself to be anyone's hero before, but flying Jasper's body safely into Gregory's arms and into the helicopter had made her feel a kind of joy she had feared she would never experience again. Now Jasper was awake, and temporarily safe, and all she wanted to do was hold him and soothe him and take him far, far away from all the dangers and darkness of this city.

That last part was, for the moment, impossible. Eva knew she would have to settle on just doing the best she could for him tonight.

“I know that... it won't help you to heal at all,” she said to Jasper, “but I want to cover up your wound. It looks so painful.”

“It is,” Jasper growled. “I've... never been staked before... this is bad. I almost feel bad now for all the times I did it to other Kindred. Almost.”

Eva frowned, but didn't ask him to elaborate. She had seen the cages in his sanctum, and knew that Abrams would sometimes ask him to do 'jobs' for him. Obviously, some of those jobs involved staking other Kindred. He didn't want to talk about it, and at the moment she didn't want to know about it. Right now, all she wanted to do was look after him.

“Why cover it though?” Jasper asked.

“I don't want to look at it any more than you do. It...” Eva broke off, swallowing. “Please, I want to do this. It won't help you heal... but it _will_ help.”

Jasper nodded. He didn't have any energy left to argue. “Alright.”

“Stay here,” Eva told him gently. “I'll be right back.”

Jasper nodded again, looking down. His long arms folded over his belly in an attempt at self-soothing that broke her heart. Eva left the room.

She had a quiet word with Campbell in the hall about bandages and blood packs. Campbell nodded and obediently went to retrieve the requested items. Next, Eva found Annabelle, who was updating Mark in his panic room on the situation.

“Annabelle, I would like your help with something please.”

The Brujah's eyes and cheeks were red from crying. She wiped her face. “Yeah, sure, Eva.”

“I'm sorry... I don't want to disturb you but... I think you're the only other one he'd be comfortable with... I want to bandage Jasper's wounds, and I need help.”

“Oh! Oh, of course, Eva, it's no problem.” Annabelle gave her a brave smile. Eva noticed she was being more careful now with how she pronounced her name after having been reprimanded by Jasper about it earlier.

“Thank you, Annabelle, and I'll bandage yours as well if you'd like, of course.”

“But we... I like the idea, but will it help?”

“Maybe not physically, no,” Eva admitted, “but I find that it does help mentally and emotionally to cover serious wounds from view. It will also mean you are less likely to get blood on anything.”

“Oh, that's a good point. Okay,” Annabelle nodded.

She followed Eva back through to the room where Jasper was resting, collecting blood packs and bandages from Campbell along the way. There were large pads with adhesive edges and also rolls of white wrapping designed to stick to itself. Eva thanked Campbell and took them into Jasper's room.

Jasper looked up when Eva and Annabelle entered. They closed the door behind them. “Are you going to yell at me some more?” he asked Annabelle.

“No,” Annabelle sniffled, “and I'm sorry I did, I was just upset and... I've been having a little bit of trouble controlling my anger lately. I'm sorry.”

“It's alright,” Jasper said. He and Eva both new knew why Annabelle was having anger problems. Rage to a Brujah was like secrets to a Nosferatu or perfectionism for the Tremere. It felt good to the point of being disruptive and obsessive. His eyes landed on the bandages and blood. “I, um... I-I don't...”

“The blood is for me,” Eva clarified. “I... gave rather a lot to you to wake you up. Annabelle is going to help me bandage you, and then I'm going to bandage her.”

“Oh,” Jasper said. He licked his fangs. “Fair enough. What... what did that to you, Annabelle?”

“This Camarilla Kindred I managed to _majorly_ piss off. He grew claws and turned into a wolf-thing. He kept clawing me even though the wards on my jacket were burning him!”

Jasper growled softly. He knew what Annabelle was talking of. He had fought with Gangrel before, many times, and knew how deadly they could be.

“It looked to be a rage frenzy, from what I could see of it,” Eva added, taking the cap off a blood bag and starting to drink.

The blood was lacking in the hot, fresh, divine taste that can only come from biting into a human with your own fangs, and her Beast whispered displeasure. She had tasted both fresh mortal blood _and_ Jasper's blood recently, and both were miles better than this. Still, the more she drank, the quieter her Beast became until three blood packs later, it was little more than a background murmur in her mind. Eva knew she was lucky she was able to drink bagged blood at all. Many Kindred couldn't stomach it.

While she drank, Annabelle filled Jasper in on more of the fight, how they used a spotlight to make things difficult for the Lasombra, the shooting from the helicopter, storing their sleeping selves in body bags to keep the sun off, and Nelli breaking his chains using so much corrosive vitae that she very nearly Frenzied herself. Jasper's jaw tightened at that.

“I remember you giving Nelli a hard time because she knew those things and you didn't think she should have. Looks like they were pretty damn useful now, huh?” Annabelle summed up.

“Yeah,” Jasper admitted quietly.

Eva set aside the now empty blood packets. “Alright, let's get you bandaged so we can get back to resting.”

“Can we really afford to be resting right now? Aren't they looking for us?” Jasper asked, snarling with anxiety.

Annabelle bit her lip, worried about the same thing. Eva was concerned as well, of course, particularly now that she had conformation that Strauss knew she was involved. She pushed it out of her mind. There had been too much stress these past few nights. They _needed_ a moment to rest.

“We will be alright for now,” she assured them both. “Jasper, can you lift your arms?”

He made an attempt, wincing and growling in pain. Annabelle helped Eva remove his hoodie, then the ruined black T-shirt underneath. The shirt had a massive hole from where the stake had punched through it.

Both of the women tried not to stare at Jasper's bare chest. He was lean and bony. They could count his ribs and vertebrae with little difficulty. His collarbone stood out. His muscles were wiry and tense. His skin was pale and dry. It seemed thin and almost brittle in places, like old paper. The inky black veins they had glimpsed on his scalp ran all the way down his body, along his spine, branching out to where his unbreathing lungs were, and collecting at a dark spot where his heart was. It unfortunately also gave anyone aiming for his heart a bulls-eye. The hole in Jasper's chest was massive and deep. Torn muscle and broken ribs could be seen, though the little healing he had already managed to do had repaired the damage to the heart itself. It was going to eventually heal from the inside outwards.

Jasper held still while Eva placed a large adhesive bandage over the hole and gently smoothed and pressed it down so the edges stuck to his skin. Then she and Annabelle wound some of the other bandage roll around and around his chest to keep everything in place. They could both feel the tension of pain in Jasper's body. He didn't look at them or say anything. They could also both tell how deeply uncomfortable he was with being shirtless around them. He was vulnerable and exposed, and though he trusted Eva and Annabelle, he hated it. Eva was glad to have Annabelle's help in this task. It made it go much quicker so to lessen Jasper's discomfort overall.

“Alright, all done,” Eva said, securing the end of the bandage. “Let's get you back into your shirt and cowl.”

“Just the top layer is fine. Let's not worry about the shirt,” Jasper said. “I don't think this is one I want to salvage.”

Eva nodded and helped him slide his arms inside the sleeves. Jasper sighed faintly in relief once his torso was covered up again. He wrapped the edges around himself snugly. He left the hood down though, for now. 

Eva encouraged him to rest back on the bed while she turned her attention to Annabelle's wounds. She frowned, shaking her head and tutting quietly at the massive, deep claw marks.

“Annabelle, I'm sorry, but these are likely going to take you a long time to heal.”

“Yeah, I figured,” Annabelle sighed. “That's alright. It's worth it.” She glanced at Jasper, who met her eyes for a brief moment, then looked away. He was still a little in doubt over his importance to the group, even after everything they had gone through. His loneliness and depression had left wounds far deeper than the stake ever did.

Eva did her best to be gentle with Annabelle's wounds as well, wrapping her arm first, then patching up her back. It took a while and all of the bandages Campbell had given her, but finally, they were done.

A tiny smile crept onto Annabelle's face when she saw the results. “Jasper and I look like mummies now.”

Eva smiled. Jasper didn't.

“Thank you for your help, Annabelle,” Eva said.

“It's no problem. Thanks for the bandages. Maybe now Mark will hug me. He was kind of afraid to touch me too much earlier.”

“I’m sure you and Mark will be fine now. Rest well,” Eva replied.

“You too.” Annabelle stood and left with a little wave. She closed the door behind her, giving Jasper and Eva some privacy.

Eva reclined on the bed next to Jasper, encouraging him to lean against her. He grunted and snarled with pain as he shifted and settled into as comfortable a position as he could. Eva wished she could administer him some painkillers, thinking back to the healing mixture she had brewed up for his burns. Was it only a few months ago that the Grove incident had happened? It felt a lot longer than that.

They held each other for a long moment, neither of them speaking. Eva's eyes stung and she realised that she was fighting back tears. She blinked hard, swallowing. Jasper shifted to look at her face. His brow creased in worry. “Are you alright?”

“Yes,” Eva said, her voice starting to shake. She could feel her composure starting to crumble now that the adrenaline of the rescue had well and truly worn off. At least these were tears of relative relief now, instead of tears of grief. “It's just... these past few nights have been the worst for me since I escaped the Ivory Tower. I've been so scared I was going to lose you, I...” A tear trickled down her cheek, leaving a stark scarlet line on her white skin. She quickly wiped it away on her handkerchief. “I'm sorry. I shouldn’t be crying.”

“Don't be sorry,” Jasper said, his voice just above a whisper. “You can cry if you want to.”

“'It's a waste of Vitae,' they used to tell me.”

“It's just us right now. Cry if you want to.”

She did. It seemed like once she had permission, Eva was able to weep freely. It was the first time she had cried like this for many years. Her handkerchief was soon stained red. Jasper held her, gently stroking her arm and back.

“I was so scared of losing you, I was ready to sacrifice myself for you,” Eva said tearfully.

Jasper snarled softly. “I would never want that. This world is so much better with you in it, Eva. I... I'm not sure I can bare to endure it without you now.”

“I feel the same,” Eva stressed, dabbing her eyes. “There's... there are a lot of things I feel about you. I... I'm no good at speaking them out loud, I'm sorry.”

“It's alright,” Jasper said. He found her hand and wrist she had fed him with. He kissed her knuckles, then her wrist where the cut had been. “You don't need to say them. I tasted them in your blood.”

It was true. When Eva gave him her blood, he could taste her every emotion along with the potent, floral, intoxicating nourishment. She was afraid and worried for their safety, sickened and terrified at seeing Jasper with the stake in his chest, relieved and thankful their mission had been a success, and all of it was powered by love. She loved him, and had done so for a long time. She hadn't wanted to admit it to herself. Her heart had broken before, too many times, by Kindred and mortals alike. She had promised herself she would never again give her heart away.

She had broken that promise when she met Jasper. Somehow, this shy but murderous Nosferatu had unintentionally charmed her. First he gained her sympathy, then her friendship, then her affection. Before she knew it, she was in love.

Jasper held Eva until she cried herself out. They lent against each other, holding hands. She kissed him again, softly, gently. There would be more kisses later, and the relief of that fact was like a chemical high in her brain. She never wanted to let him go ever again, and at that moment, he felt exactly the same.

“If we... if we manage to survive everything... once this is over... what do you want to do?” Eva asked with hesitation.

Jasper sighed, wincing at the motion. “I think that... like we've said before... both of us have been on our own for long enough now. I... I don't know what will happen, but... I'd like to stay with you. O-or... you with me, I mean. Um...”

Eva smiled. Seeing him return to some degree of embarrassed, flustered flirtation was a small sign he was feeling a little better. “I would like that very much... so long as you don't mind me learning a few more of your secrets.”

“You don't want to learn _all_ my secrets. Trust me.”

“Nor do I want you to learn all of mine. We have to keep some of the mystery.” Eva found herself gently playing with Jasper's long fingers. She touched the place where her ring used to be.

“I'm sorry about the ring,” Jasper murmured.

“Rings can be replaced,” Eva replied just as softly. “You cannot.” She kissed his temple again.

Jasper closed his eyes and relaxed in Eva's embrace. She hummed softly an old tune she half remembered her mother humming to her when she was sick in bed as a child. That had been a very long time ago. He held her hand to his chest, the bandages giving the illusion that he was whole and unharmed.

When the sun rose, sleep claimed the vampires once again. All was peaceful, for a little while at least.


End file.
